


Life Without Her

by firstversesameasthethird (itsedgzoi)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-28
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-09 12:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3249503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsedgzoi/pseuds/firstversesameasthethird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simmons is forced to learn what life would be like without her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Without Her

**Author's Note:**

> After writing this, I realized that this idea was really obvious, especially with the "can't imagine life without her," being used so much, so I apologize in advance if this has been done before.

Simmons woke up, and was completely confused. She knew she had fallen asleep in the secret SHIELD facility known as ‘The Playground’, but she could tell within seconds that she was somewhere very different. The walls were now made of a dull, gray concrete, unpainted except for some sort of logo that she couldn’t quite make out in the dark that was painted on the wall across from her in white block lettering.  
The second thing that struck Simmons strange was the fact that she was surrounded by people, all in bunks like the miserable one she had just woken up in. This was odd because she knew Skye had been the only person in the room when she had fallen asleep. It wasn’t terribly uncommon to wake up and see one or two people who hadn’t been there before, especially because the Agents of SHIELD tended to keep odd sleeping hours, especially lately, but seeing a dozen people packed in a small room was quite a surprise.  
Despite the darkness, Simmons could make out someone else sitting up in their cot, and realized it was Melinda May. “What’s going on here, May?” Simmons asked, apparently too loudly, because she felt the specialist’s hand clamp over her mouth with lightning speed.  
“Be quiet, are you trying to get everyone here beaten?” May hissed through clenched teeth.  
“Please tell me what’s going on here,” Simmons whispered, but May ignored the request, and pushed Simmons back down on the bed she had awoken on less than a minute earlier.  
Before Simmons could ask another question, an intimidating-looking man who wore a military uniform that Simmons didn’t recognize (not that she had a particularly strong knowledge of military uniforms) strode into the room, making a point of not letting his beefy hand leave the pistol holstered at his side. The confused scientist couldn’t stop herself from gasping out loud when the man thrust both of his fists in the air, and declared “Hail Hydra!”  
She was even more shocked when everyone else in the room, including May raised their fists to the dirty ceiling and repeated what the guard had said in a defeated tone. The guard raised a whistle to his mouth, gave one short blast on it, turned on his heel, and started marching to his right down a hallway. When everyone in the room started following him, Simmons realized that she should probably follow, so as not to stand out. The hall was similarly dingy, with ostentatious HYDRA logos painted all over.  
Before long, the guard who certainly seemed to work for HYDRA had led the group outside. In the morning sunlight, Simmons saw more faces she knew, but she quickly realized that everyone was different than she had last seen them, and not in a positive way. She saw Hunter, who appeared to have lost his right leg under the knee, supported by Mack. The blindfold over the giant man’s eyes seemed to suggest the he had lost his vision, if not his eyes. While Simmons tried to not stare at that pair of people she had known, Bobbi Morse walked over and stood next to her. A quick look down told Simmons that Bobbi had lost all of her fingers, although her extremities appeared to have been removed almost surgically, unlike the grotesque stump that had once been Hunter’s leg.  
“What in the world is going on?” Simmons whispered to the tall blonde once the guard turned away from them.  
“Same thing that happens every day,” Bobbi replied in a similarly quiet, but clearly confused tone, “those HYDRA bastards think if they give us fresh air, then they are somehow marginally less evil.”  
“This will sound odd, but the last thing I remember is falling asleep in ‘The Playground’, and Skye was there, and we were talking about what we were going to do once we finished taking down HYDRA, and-“ Simmons said, but stopped herself when she felt a tear start to roll down her pale cheek.  
“The Playground?” Bobbi asked, “Simmons, you know that we were attacked there more than a year ago, right? And who is this Skye?”  
“You aren’t serious, are you,” Simmons asked disbelievingly, “this is just a prank or something, right? A very believable, very terrible prank…” she trailed off, lost in thought.  
“I’m so sorry, Simmons,” Bobbi said, as reassuringly as she could, given the circumstances, though not without a touch of obvious worry about Simmons mental state.  
Simmons wracked her brain to figure out what was going on. “You said you don’t remember Skye at all?” Jemma asked. When Bobbi said no by way of shaking her head, she wasn’t sure what to think. Every time she had an idea, she quickly realized that it was even less likely than the one before it. Did HYDRA wipe Skye from everyone’s memories? No, that wouldn’t explain the fact that the ‘Playground’ had apparently fallen a year ago. Did they travel back in time and cross Skye off? No, there is no way HYDRA had that technology. Have I completely lost my mind? Likely, but that was impossible to prove right now, so there was no reason to worry about. An alternate universe? Although unlikely, it was fairly possible.  
“Bobbi, I think I ended up in some sort of…I’m not sure, I’d call it an alternate timeline, one where Skye never joined SHIELD. That’s why everything is so terrible here,” Simmons urgently suggested.  
“…right,” Bobbi said skeptically, “I’m sorry Simmons, but you aren’t making any sense right now. You remember when HYDRA revealed themselves after that mission where they captured that girl with the earthquake powers? That was when-“ Bobbi stopped when Simmons started excitedly saying something.  
“A girl with earthquake powers? That must have been Skye! I wonder how she got to the Inhuman city in this timeline…”  
“It sounds like this Skye person was important to you,” Bobbi said cautiously.  
“I…I loved her,” Simmons admitted. Suddenly, she felt something touch her arm, although she saw nothing. The touch became a light push that shook her.  
Suddenly, she woke up again. She cautiously opened her eyes, and surveyed the area around her. She was relieved to notice that she was safe and sound in the ‘Playground’, and Skye, who had apparently shaken her awake, was sitting on her bed. “I hope you realize how cute it is when you talk while you’re dreaming,” the computer expert remarked with a grin, “especially when it’s about me.”  
“It was a horrible dream,” Simmons said as she let relief over the fact that the nightmarish, Skye-less future had been just that- a nightmare.  
“Tell me all about it.”


End file.
